It was fairly easy editing the wiki. The video was helpful in explaining the concepts and basic operations of the wiki. My staff could contribute to the wiki fairly easily and the students would not have a problem with contributions. My favorite wiki example was the third grade research projects. I would like to create a wiki for my Research and Evaluation class for next semester. The students could share their topics and progress with the paper. Also, I like the ability to edit the page very quickly and easily for information on databases. A wiki would be a great place for teachers in the school to share information on websites for specific subjects.

Kim

The wiki was fun and easy to use. As the article, "May Way for Wikis" points out, there are lots of opportunities to use wikis in a school setting. I'm sure that once staff (teachers) try it, they would use it more and more. What a great way to develop topics across the curriculum.

Yahoo! This exercise went very easily. Editing the wiki worked without complications. Being so small, I doubt we would use the wiki as a staff, but I can see where it might work very well in co-ordinating a larger staff. This is all slowly starting to come together - I'm beginning to be able to see these things as tools for organizing information, as opposed to just more confusing information in themselves. Thanks Kathy!

Actually, although the wiki idea for our own internal communication wouldn't really make sense, some of the ideas in the articles about a wiki as a community might work well for Plympton. We're such a small "commuter town", with no real center and part time library, town hall, etc., that different groups in town don't really have a place to connect, or know what other groups are doing. I don't know if a lot of people would connect with the idea of a wiki, either, but it might be worth a try.

Kathy K.

The wiki portion of this course has been my favorite. Playing in the wiki sandbox was so simple. The tutorial was very helpful, emphasizing the save button....that's where I would have made mistakes. Our staff is already producing ideas for wikis. I plan to use one next year for our annual staff favorites book list. It's my job to edit the annotations which can be a real challenge if I haven' t read the books. Crunching an amazon plot summary into two sentences takes a lot of time. If I invite contributing staff members to a wiki, the editing can be a group effort.

I agree, I really liked this wiki session, too. At our school, we write Faculty Book Reviews (similar to the annual staff favorites book list, I'm sure). We send our reviews to the person who manages the school web site. A wiki would work great and would be a time saver.

PBWiki and I are old friends so the SEMLS Wiki Sandbox was a snap. Wikipedia was a bit more daunting. I created an account and added a listing for the newest book by local historian William Hanna under the Taunton entry, his other books were listed, but I really need to do a bit more exploring over there before I add the information about the library I'd like to.

When I was first introduced to wikis, I'll admit, my first thought was not of their usefulness for libraries but of their usefulness for schools so I agree with Kim they are a great place for teachers to share information on specific subjects. However, having worked with them I'm one of the flag waving wikis in libraries supporters. With two under our belts I'm now hoping, cross you fingers, to get my Director to use a wiki as we continue to update our long range plan.

Daisy

I really enjoyed this part. It seems to bring together the components we've learned, in a FUN way. It was fun to add things in the sandbox. I can see using this as a way to get the Teens to contribute to their home library's wiki with reviews, etc. Also, a way of connecting to teachers with their assignments, which are often sprung on the librarians at the last minute! Of course My Own Cafe is for that as well! I'll be a bit bolder now at creating my own wikis in the future or collaborating with others!

Okay, so I actually liked this more than I thought I would. I have always been on the fence about wikis...or at least how I would incorporate them into my school library program. The middle school librarian in my district & I are planning on drafting a policies and procedures manual, and now I can see how much easier this would be to use than emailing revised drafts to each other all the time. I had fun here adding to the favorites list. I know I am late (as usual) but feel free to add to my category (favorite pass-times).


In terms of the exemplary wikis, I liked the Moncreif Library wiki because students had to explain library services and products in their own words. It seems like they'd be more likely to use it and rely on it since it is student-driven, not librarian-driven. I also liked the St Joseph Public library subject guide area. I don't know if I would use it for this, since I don't have a large staff, but this would be neat at a larger public library where multiple people could work to keep it updated...

I've been reading Andrew Keen's The Cult of the Amateur, which I believe Kathy recommended, and find it fascinating. Authority and authenticity have been replaced by frivolity and (I'm paraphrasing) the sounds of millions of blogger simultaneously talking about themselves. McDonald's goes in and deletes the link to Fast Food Nation in Wikipedia. I still think it's useful to libraries, even if it means we must reinvent ourselves. Like Rachel said, we can do policy manuals via wiki. It's a fine line between dehumanizing and collaboration. Jane